François Duvalier was the president of Haiti from 1957 until his death. Trained as a physician and known to his people as "Papa Doc," Duvalier ruled his country as no other Haitian chief executive had, using violence and phony elections to hold down any opposition.

By mass-producing his inventions, the American inventor and industrialist (one who owns or manages an industry) George Eastman promoted photography as a popular hobby. He also donated large sums to educational institutions.

The American inventor Thomas Edison held hundreds of patents, mostly for electrical devices and electric light and power. Although the phonograph and the electric light bulb are best known, perhaps his greatest invention was organized research.

The German-born American physicist (one who studies matter and energy and the relationships between them) Albert Einstein revolutionized the science of physics. He is best known for his theory of relativity, which holds that measurements of space and time vary according to conditions such as the state of motion of the observer.

Mamie Eisenhower, the wife of President Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower (1890–1969), represented what was to 1950s America the ideal American wife: She displayed quiet strength, found satisfaction in domestic duties, and supported her husband without hesitation.

George Eliot was the pen name (a writing name) used by the English novelist Mary Ann Evans, one of the most important writers of European fiction. Her masterpiece, Middlemarch, is not
only a major social record but also one of the greatest novels in the history of fiction.

Elizabeth I was queen of England and Ireland from 1558 to 1603. She preserved stability in a nation torn by political and religious tension and led the country during a time of great exploration and achievement.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the most thought-provoking American cultural leaders of the mid-nineteenth century. He represented a minority of Americans with his unconventional ideas and actions, but by the end of his life many considered him to be a wise person.

The Dutch scholar Erasmus was the dominant figure of the early sixteenth-century humanist movement (a movement during the Renaissance period devoted to human welfare). The intellectual middleman (one who negotiates) during the last years of Christian unity, he remains one of European culture's most controversial figures.

The Greek mathematician (math expert) Euclid wrote the Elements, a thirteen-volume set of textbooks of geometry (the study of points, lines, angles, and surfaces)—the oldest major mathematical work existing in the Western world.

Euripides was a Greek playwright (one who writes plays or dramas) whom Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.) called the most tragic of the Greek poets. He is certainly the most revolutionary Greek tragedian (one who writes plays based on human tragedies and conflicts) known in modern times.

Medgar Evers, field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was one of the most important figures of the African American civil rights movement. He paid for his beliefs with his life, becoming the first major civil rights leader to be assassinated in the 1960s.

Fannie Farmer was an American authority in the art of cooking and the author of six books about food preparation. She was a determined woman who overcame her physical limitations to achieve success in her field.

Louis Farrakhan is a leader of the Nation of Islam, a religious group that is more popularly known as the Black Muslims. Beginning in the 1970s he emerged as a spokesman for Black Nationalism, arguing that African Americans should work to improve themselves rather than expect whites to help them.

William Faulkner, a major American twentieth-century author, wrote historical novels portraying the decline and decay of the upper crust of Southern society. The imaginative power and psychological depth of his work ranks him as one of America's greatest novelists.

Dianne Feinstein was elected San Francisco's first female mayor in 1979 and became one of the
nation's most visible and recognized leaders. In 1992, when she was elected to the Senate, she and Barbara Boxer became the first female senators from California.

The Italian American physicist (specialist in the relationship between matter and energy) Enrico Fermi developed the first nuclear (using atomic energy) chain reaction, which helped lead to the creation of the atomic bomb.

Sixty-four years after American women won the right to vote, Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman candidate for the vice presidency of a major political party. She had previously served three terms in the U.S.

An eight-time United States chess champion, Bobby Fischer helped win over a new generation of chess fans with his famous 1972 victory over Boris Spassky (1937–). Fischer, a known recluse (a person who prefers to live shut out from the rest of the world), often receives criticism for his anti-Semitic and anti-American views.